The Trials of Friendship
by skyoria
Summary: What if, when Zuko was trying to teach Aang a lesson on Ember Island… someone got hurt?


**Firebender:** Write about the first time someone accidentally hurt someone else.

**Prompts:**

**6. **(location) Ember Island

**7. **(genre) Friendship

**8. **(dialogue) "Someone's sensitive"

* * *

><p>The birds were chirping, the fire lilies were blooming and the waves were crashing peacefully on the shores. Ember Island is truly a paradise among the idyllic Fire Nation islands. There's so much to see and do! There's the world known theater-where the Ember Island Players began; the fishing is astounding; and the Fire Lord's summer home is a sight to behold… When it's not having holes blown in it.<p>

"Zuko that's enough!"

"Stop it!"

"What do you think you're doing?"

"Zuko! Aang!"

"He's gone crazy!"

"Where did they go?!"

"There! On the roof!"

Katara, Suki, Sokka and Toph all ran forward to try and get Zuko to stop attacking. Suddenly, there was an almighty crash, as Zuko blasted a hole in the roof. Pieces of wood went flying every which way and everyone, besides Zuko, raised their arms to shield themselves.

"Ahhh!"

"Katara!"

Katara had gotten farther ahead of the rest of them, being the first to run after Zuko. She had gotten too close to the blast and a piece of debris sliced her arm before she could block it.

Aang heard what sounded like Sokka's shout, but Zuko was right on his tail and he was in a bad place to maneuver without hurting Zuko. However, he was getting tired of this and it sounded like Katara had been hurt. Aang glowered. This needed to stop. Now.

He turned to Zuko, shouting "enough!" Finally acting offensively, Aang blew Zuko through the window and into the courtyard. Aang flew down after him-to make sure he wouldn't attack again, as well as to make sure he was all right-and was soon joined by the rest of the Gaang. Aang's eyes flew to Katara when he heard them approaching. She was bleeding. Why was she bleeding?! He turned his eyes onto Zuko-who was currently being subjected to Sokka's glare and everyone else's stares.

"Why'd you attack me?! You hurt Katara with your reckless behavior! She's injured because of you!"

Zuko's eyes widened with horror, "Wha-?"

"You hurt my sister!" Sokka interrupted Zuko before he could finish and began to stalk towards Zuko, murder written all over his face.

"Woah there Snoozles!" Toph said as she casually shifted the ground under his feet to make him face the other direction, earning her a startled yelp from Sokka. "She barely got scratched and the only reason she hasn't healed herself yet, is because of all the commotion!"

Sokka looked about ready to rebel against Toph's logic, when they heard more shouting from Aang-who had apparently been continuing the yelling match without them. Katara seemed to be healing herself right then and trying to show Aang that she was fine, but he wasn't listening. He simply kept digging into Zuko who hadn't said a word in his defense, yet.

"I thought I could trust you! I thought you were my friend, but then you attack me with no warning and injured Katara!"

With that, Zuko lost his shamed look. He was just angry now.

"How dare you Aang!?"

Aang looked absolutely shocked at the outburst, having been on a tirade for the past few minutes. The shock quickly wore off and turned to one of anger to almost match Zuko's. He opened his mouth to address why exactly he dared, but he didn't get the chance. Zuko was striding past, only deigning a glance at Katara, his expression stony as he headed towards the beach.

Aang let out an annoyed groan and stomped inside the summer house. The rest of the Gaang weren't too surprised when they heard the slamming of Aang's door.

For a few moments, they stood in an awkward silence, not quite knowing how to break it. Toph then shuffled her feet.

"Well, someone's sensitive."

* * *

><p>Katara started walking down to the beach, where she saw Zuko heading. She decided to try approaching Zuko first for several reasons. First and foremost in her mind, was the fact that Aang tended to not be rational when it came to herself. If she went to talk to him, he wouldn't listen. Zuko and Aang obviously still had a few issues… She knew that Zuko didn't mean to hurt her, but she had to know why he attacked Aang. If he had been trying to hurt Aang he would have. It had to be something else…<p>

"Katara?"

She looked up, slightly confused, having been lost in thought.

"Zuko? Zuko!"

He looked managed to look slightly amused at her, even through his black mood. However, he was soon back to brooding when he glanced at her arm.

"Are-are you alright? I-I-I swear I didn't mean to hurt you. I was just trying to teach Aang a lesson, because I got angry that he wasn't taking training and the comet seriously. I-I never meant-"

He cut himself off when he felt Katara place a hand on his arm.

"It's alright. I never once thought that you hurt me on purpose."

Katara could feel him relaxing due to her statement and she smiled a bit.

"You do need to go speak with Aang about this though."

Zuko looked thoroughly depressed at the subject of Aang and dropped his head into his hands.

"What am I going to do? I messed everything up again!"

"No you didn't Zuko. If you had, why would I be here?"

He lifted his head at that.

"You really think so?"

"Yep! Aang was acting irrationally. You are his friend no matter what he might spout in a moment of anger."

Katara paused for a moment and looked at Zuko with a glint in her eyes.

"He actually reminded me of you a bit."

Zuko looked very affronted at that. "Hey!"

Katara simply laughed a bit. "Come on Sparky! You need to go talk to Aang."

Zuko frowned, "Don't call me that." Katara chuckled and asked, "How about Zu-Zu?" His frown turned into a glower and they started making their way back up to the house, with Katara pulling Zuko along.

* * *

><p>Zuko took a deep breath, steadying his nerves. He was only going to face down an irate child Avatar, after accidently causing harm to the girl he has a crush on. No sweat. Zuko sighed, hoping he wasn't going to have to be scraped off the wall.<p>

Zuko sighed again and only hesitated for a second before opening the door. Aang was lying on his stomach on the bed, fiddling with his bison whistle. He didn't say anything to Zuko about barging in without knocking. He didn't say anything at all. Aang wouldn't even look at him.

Zuko sighed again. He was doing that a lot today.

"Aang we need to talk about what happened. You should know that I would never hurt Katara on purpose. I was only attacking you to try and get you to take my lessons seriously. I feel like you don't care that the comet is only a few days away; that you don't care about preparing as much as possible."

Zuko was getting frustrated. Aang was still laying on his bed, fiddling with that whistle and only giving him the barest of sideways glances.

"Ugh! Aang this is important!"

Aang finally turned fully to Zuko and gave him his full attention. "What?" Aang asked, very curtly.

Zuko glared at him a bit for his attitude before continuing. "I'm not going to repeat myself. You're acting like a petulant child and this stuff is hard for me to talk about… You're not making this any easier."

Aang simply watched him. Zuko took a deep breath. How he hated talking about how words affected him-especially Aang's words.

"You said that you 'trusted' me. As in you used to. That you thought we were friends. That really hurt Aang. You didn't even give me a chance to explain myself! You just automatically assumed that I had hurt Katara on purpose and that I was trying to hurt you! What did you think?! That I was a spy?! No, I simply believe that you saw Katara bleed a bit and you stopped thinking at all."

"She's the love of my life and she was hurt by someone. How am I supposed to react to that?!"

Zuko wasn't going to even try and get into the 'love of his life' thing.

"Perhaps with a bit more rationality. If you had taken the time to look at the wound for yourself or payed attention to when Katara was healing herself, you would've noticed that your level of reaction was ridiculous. She's perfectly fine!"

"…She is?"

"Of course she is Aang. You knew that, otherwise you wouldn't be laying in bed pouting and I wouldn't be breathing."

Aang gave one feeble laugh. "That's true with Sokka around…"

"And you apparently. I knew you had a crush on her, but you need to get some control over it."

Aang blushed, "You knew? Does Katara know? Does everyone know? Oh monkeyfeathers…"

Zuko sighed. He really should start keeping a tally for today. "Aang I need to know that what you said wasn't the truth. I need you to know that you can trust me and that I think of you as a friend."

"It wasn't the truth. I've been thinking about it, and I'm sorry Zuko. I was just so upset. I didn't mean it! I do trust you and you are my friend."

Zuko released the breath he hadn't known he'd been holding, and relaxed.

"I think I just have some, um, well worries I guess…" Aang confessed, looking rather ashamed.

Zuko was definitely not relaxed anymore. "Like what?" Zuko replied tensely.

"Well… I just sort of get the feeling that you like Katara too and I guess I just get jealous. That and you've got some anger issues…"

"I don't have anger issues!"

Aang's eyes were wide as he looked Zuko up and down. Zuko only then realized that he had raised his voice.

"Uhhhh, well, only a little. I've been working on it!"

"Oh I know! I've noticed a huge difference from last year!"

Zuko just gave him a bland look. "Aang, if we've now got this all settled, there's something I need to tell everyone about the comet. I was hoping I wouldn't have to, but with everything that's gone on today I think I should." He turned and started to leave when Aang's voice stopped him dead in his tracks.

"Ya know… You never said anything about me thinking that you liked Katara…"

Unseen to The Avatar, Zuko blushed. "Aang do you think we could leave all the playground drama until after we've won the war?"


End file.
